PARIS – With his back against the wall, Roman Kopylov delivered at UFC Fight Night 209.

Kopylov (9-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) notched his first octagon win when he knocked out Alessio Di Chirico this past Saturday at Accor Arena in Paris. It was a must-win situation for the Russian, who after an undefeated start to his professional MMA career, found himself 0-2 in the UFC heading into his fight against Di Chirico.

“I’m very happy to win,” Kopylov told reporters through an interpreter. “The first two fights were not lucky in my favor, so I’m very happy to get to the winning column, and hopefully we’ll bring great fights and continue to win.”

He continued, “Yes, of course it was very important. Like I said, the last two were losses, so it was very important for me to win this one. I did everything to get the win, and I knew that no matter what, I had to walk away in the winning column.”

Kopylov got off to a good start, but Di Chirico was able to make adjustments in Round 2. But after taking some advice from his corner, Kopylov was able to turn things back around and get the emphatic finish just over a minute into the final round.

“The first round was going in my favor, and I thought I was doing a good job,” Kopylov said. “The second round kind of went sideways a little bit. I’m not sure what was happening, but it didn’t go my way. And, of course, my corner saw what was happening, they gave me some corrections, I took those corrections, and with their corrections and their guidance, I was able to find the victory.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 209.